The Klingons were one of the aliens found in the Star Trek series and films. Famously, Klingon dictionaries and translations have appeared.

The latest event in Klingon translation is by Bing who have added Klingon to the list of languages in their internet based translation software. This effort is to mark the release of the film ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’.

We can only wonder what science fiction characters will have a fuller version of their languages created for translation!

The original Star Wars film was released in 1977 and since its release it has been translated to many languages. These translations will have included either subtitles, dubbing or both.

The next step for Star Wars is to translate the film to the native American language of Navajo. This task is being completed by 5 translators under the initiative of Manuelito Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum in Arizona, USA.

Such a film translation is more complex as words such as ‘robot’ do not exist in Navajo. For such a situation a decision will need to be made over whether to adopt the word from English (or another language), to create a new Navajo word or to use many words that describe the item.

The newly translated Navajo version will be presented on the 3rd July 2013

On the news we see the flooding across Central Europe. These floods have included the German city of Dresden and Prague in the Czech Republic. I doubt a day passes where a natural disaster has not impacted an area of our planet.

In such situations translators and interpreters can play their part. Rescue teams are often dispatched from other countries and an interpreter can help them coordinate with local resources and the victims.

Translation can also play a role in avoiding disasters and disaster planning. The translation might be of a new technology that could protect against issues common to the area.

The fact is that communication is a key factor in such situations, translations and interpreting helps with communication and can therefore make a positive impact at these testing moments.

It has been reported that the revenue generated by English football clubs exceeds £3billion. Please remember that this is English only and does not include the remainder of the UK. Add to this £1.58bn for German, £1.4bn for Spain and £1.3bn for Italy and you can only imagine the amount of money generated by football annually.

Football is an international industry. How many top-level clubs have only players from their home country? I cannot think of one.

Supporters are also international. Teams such as Manchester United and Barcelona have fans worldwide. They are not alone in this regard and any of these supporters cannot speak the language of their teams country. These fans need translations to help them follow and support their team.

On this basis, the translation and interpreting industry plays its part in the business of football. It might be a Spanish interpreter for interviews or a Russian translation for a footballers contract. Translations for football are required and we offer this service at Axis Translations.

It has been announced that Latvia will be the second of the Baltic states to join the EU. What does this mean for Latvian translation services?

The Latvian language is already included in the list of official languages of the European Union. This status requires Latvian interpreters and translators to directly support the EU. The Latvian language became an official language in 2004.

However, we can expect an increased demand for Latvian translations. Why? Because full membership will allow free trade. Latvian businesses will increasingly be able to sell to their European partners and their European partners will more easily be able to sell to them.

The membership will also allow Latvians to move within the European nations. From previous examples we can expect Latvians to leave in search of work. This will require translation of CV’s and other personal documents to allow the person to settle in their chosen country. Read the rest of this entry »

A new article has been added to the Axis website to discuss interpreting and translation and the differences between the 2 types of language services. Please read the article and let us know your thought. Click here to read article

This title could as easily create a book, but the fact is that translation might have saved your life, save you life in the future or improve your quality of life.

How?

Translation improves communication and this allows medical knowledge to be transferred. This knowledge has helped the unborn child through to the terminally ill. Medical translation is often a part of the medical development process.

Translation improves health and safety. The translation of manuals, training material and good practice may allow equipment to be used more safely.

Translation allows new technology to be adopted. This might be the translation of news articles informing people of the new technology, the translation of sales documents or simply the installation and users manuals. This new technology might improve safety in ways you are unaware of.

Translation helps with technology and technology improves our quality of life. As example, the Wright Brothers might not have been the first to achieve powered flight if they had been unable to follow the accounts of German gliding pioneer, Otto Lilienthal. Our holiday’s might be different if flight had been delayed another 50 years.

This is a short introduction to this subject, but the fact is that translation is a key part knowledge sharing. Knowledge helps improve our survival and the quality of the time that we have. Translation should be recognised for the part it plays.

Once upon a time we had languages, but no dictionaries or other resources to help us with understanding a text or learning a language. A nightmare situation for translation by today’s standards.

We should give thanks to those pioneers who made improvements to the quality of translation through their efforts to create dictionaries. One such person was Johannes Rebmann (1820-1876) who compiled the first Chichewa / Chinyanja dictionary. It is difficult to imagine the effort that this accomplishment took and so I am pleased to offer a little recognistion in this blog.

Approximately 7 to 8 million people speak Chichewa. Chichewa is an official national language, along with English, in Malawi. It is a Bantu language and is also spoken in Zambia and Mozambique, where the language is known as Chinyanja and Zimbabwe.

A biography of Johannes Rebmann is now available ‘Johannes Rebmann: A Servant of God in Africa before the Rise of Western Colonialism’.

The BBC have aired a series ‘Mark & Olly: Living with the Machigenga’ on their international channels, but have received criticism from anthropologists regarding the translations for the subtitles. The series shows the presenters adjusting to life with an Amazonian tribe, but it appears the series did not give a true account and that subtitles were falsely translated and scenes staged.

The above subtitles clearly mislead the audience in their impression of the tribe and the reality of the situation.

In addition, an authority on the Machigenga tribe said that, despite having spent 35 years living in their villages, he had never seen the ‘wild pig dance’ featured in the programme. This has lead experts to believe that many scenes had been ‘staged’.

It is now reported that subsequently Ron Snell, who grew up with the Matsigenka and is fluent in their language, has met with the translator and the village chief and that it was confirmed that some parts had been staged. The translator said they had become disillusioned with the project but needed the money. They are now ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ about their involvement.

However, this issue also undermines the efforts of the presenters. Any experienced translator will appreciate the difficulties a person faces when they live in a new country, but living with a tribe in the Amazon is in another league! For this reason we should hope that a correct translation of the subtitles can be made and that the staged scenes can be edited out. Surely the reality of the situation will be interesting enough…….and better than watching a boring reality TV show with some people stuck in a house facing made up challenges?